KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Minorities Gayan Chand Israni has said that the government is giving priority to protection of rights of minorities in Sindh.

He was speaking at a media briefing on protection of minority rights organised by the Sindh Rural Partner Organisation (SRPO) at a local hotel here on Tuesday.

“The government will ensure that five per cent job quota for minorities is implemented in all departments. The government has also decided to recruit 2,000 policemen from minorities and it will be mandatory for them to protect temples for at least three years,” the minister said.

He further said that closed-circuit television cameras would be installed at 650 religious places of minorities and lauded the Rangers and police for maintaining peace and security in the province. “There has been no new case of kidnapping from minority communities as compared to previous times,” he pointed out.

Earlier, MPA Sindh Assembly Nusrat Saher Abbasi of the PML-F said that representatives of minorities in the assembly should come forward to address multiple problems being faced by minorities in Sindh.

She said that often other non-Muslim communities like Christians, Parsis and Sikhs were ignored and not main-streamed. “The ruling party in Sindh should play a major role and undertake required legislation in this regard,” she said.

Nand Kumar Goklani, a parliamentary leader of the PML-F in the Sindh Assembly, also said that he had tabled two bills to stop forced conversions and a minority rights commission in Sindh Assembly.

Executive director of SRPO Zahida Detho said that a majority of non-Muslim community members in Mirpurkhas division lived in pathetic conditions due to extreme poverty.

She deplored that there was no social protection policy for minorities in Sindh and added that there was not a single woman from minorities in the Sindh Assembly out of the nine minority members there.

Policy adviser of SRPO Nasir Ali Panhwar said that there were still many people from minorities in Mirpukhas, who have no computerised national identity cards. “Local institutions such as the panchayat are not working and there are no committees or forums where minorities can register their complaints,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 7th , 2015

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